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Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Turn It Up to 11: Tech's Contributions to Rock and Roll
By Patrick Miller / PC World (CLICK to read more)"Rock music undoubtedly owes its legacy to a number of factors (the relative affluence of the Baby Boom generation, the tumultuous political climate of the Cold War, and remarkable advances in the field of recreational psychotropic substances, to name a few), but one element was absolutely crucial: technology.
Rock simply wouldn't have rocked without electric guitars, Marshall amp stacks, the Vox Box, amplifiers capable of projecting the music to the crowd, or stage effects that helped create a spectacle. Join us on a magical mystery tour through some of the greatest tech-milestone concerts, instruments, and music gadgets in the history of rock music."
Is dynamic range compression destroying music?
By CNET News (CLICK to read more)
"Dynamic range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording, mixing, and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio or iTunes is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-compressed.
Before we go any further, I'm not referring to the lossy compression used in MP3s, or lossless compression used in Apple Lossless. They've got their own set of problems, but dynamic range compression is a very different predicament.
To the casual listener compression can sound 'good,' mostly because it makes the music seem louder and punchier, and once music's natural soft-loud dynamic shifts are squashed flat music is easier to hear in noisy environments like cars or over iPods. Compression reduces the need to adjust playback volume--because it's always nearly the same volume--loud."
"Dynamic range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording, mixing, and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio or iTunes is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-compressed.
Before we go any further, I'm not referring to the lossy compression used in MP3s, or lossless compression used in Apple Lossless. They've got their own set of problems, but dynamic range compression is a very different predicament.
To the casual listener compression can sound 'good,' mostly because it makes the music seem louder and punchier, and once music's natural soft-loud dynamic shifts are squashed flat music is easier to hear in noisy environments like cars or over iPods. Compression reduces the need to adjust playback volume--because it's always nearly the same volume--loud."
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